Dates: Year Round
Cost: $ 1095.00 per person (requires 4 or more for booking)
Starting Point: Portland or Pre Arranged Location
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4 nights – 3 days: Includes Birding Excursions, Bird Guide, Waterfalls, transportation, lodging, breakfast and optional wine tasting
BIRDING IN SOUTHERN OREGON
The Bald Eagle is a regular visitor.
A well-known Chinese proverb… “If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.” For wildlife enthusiasts the world over, Southern Oregon is the best birding destination to inspire the “green bough of the heart.” The abundance of species and viewing areas is practically limitless, stretching from the Wild Rivers Coast to the High Country and Oregon Outback regions. Here’s a quick snapshot and some helpful links for planning your next birding adventure in Southern Oregon.
The Klamath Basin
Situated near the Southern Oregon/Northern California state line, the Klamath Basin Birding Trail (KBBT) includes 47 birding locations where birding enthusiasts can spot more than 350 species among the mountains and marshes of the area. There are eight state and federal wildlife refuges in the Klamath Basin, and 80 percent of the waterfowl that travel the Pacific Flyway come through this area (including one of the largest concentrations of Bald Eagles in the continental US). The Klamath Basin was rated on Sunset Magazine’s list of “Fantastic Five Birding Destinations in the West.”
Northern Klamath County
Fall and spring bring one to three million ducks, geese, and swans using refuge wetlands in their annual migrations. Winter bald eagle numbers peak in mid February with Basin populations ranking as the largest recorded in the contiguous United States. Waterfowl migration begins in early September with the arrival of northern pintails and greater white-fronted geese. Numbers peak in March with more than one million birds. In early November you can expect other species that include: mallard, American wigeon, green winged teal, snow, Ross’, and Canada geese, and tundra swan. August and September are good months to view water birds, such as the American white pelican, double-crested cormorant, and various herons, gulls, terns, and grebes.
Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge
In Lake County to the east, check out the Summer Lake Basin and the thousands of migratory birds that feed there in the Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge and Chewaucan Marshes. The Summer Lake Basin supports more than 250 species, including bald eagles, Canada geese, White Faced Ibis, Yellow-headed blackbirds, Goshawks, Hermit Thrushes, Red-tail hawks and Great Blue Herons.
Lake County
Birders will find opportunities to view everything from migratory songbirds, to upland game birds to nesting waterfowl. As the elevation climbs from 4,600 feet at the ranch base to 5,400 feet in the high meadows, it is amazing to see the vegetation and the variety of birds change. Eagle sightings are fairly common as are falcons, which nest in the rimrocks, and other birds of prey. Having seen meadow larks and bluebirds in other parts of Oregon, it seems to us that these species are even more brilliantly marked here in Oregon’s Outback.
Rogue River Region
Southern Oregon’s landscape of prairie, basalt rimrock, seasonal ponds and oak woodlands harbors some of the state’s most diverse wildlife areas. The Wild & Scenic section of the Rogue River is a brooding area for Great Blue Herons, Bald Eagles, Osprey, Egrets, Pileated Woodpeckers, Scarlet Tanagers, Canadian Geese and Ducks.
